Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors Is Now On iOS, But Without Puzzles

Spike Chunsoft continues their Smart Sound Novel series with a port of Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. This game is the first title in the Zero Escape series and was originally released for the Nintendo DS back in 2009.

Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors has the same story as the DS game, but it’s only the story. The escape the room puzzles were removed. The game has some other changes like a comic style presentation for conversations and a handy flowchart that allows you to jump at different points like Virute’s Last Reward.

The graphics were also updated with high resolution images. Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors is 1,000 yen and available on iTunes right now. It looks like it’s a Japan-only title at the moment.

It’s great that they remade it with high resolution artwork. Kinu Nishimura is an excellent artist. I’m not sure how I feel about the removal of puzzles, though.

Richard N

Now this is a phone game I would buy!

Lumi

Ohhh this would be good. But these awesome Japan phone games doesn’t seem to port anything over to English or Android… At least I can finally recommend this to my friends though.

Risa

999 is an Aksys game not level 5. Though I do agree with you that it will probably never make it out of Japan.

Lumi

Opps, opened 2 tabs and got things mixed up! But have hope, Chunsoft did say something about being interested in bringing Night of the Sickle Weasel to English…

Margaret Chan

I would rebuy 999 for my iPhone like this too.

Sheep

The puzzles become integral to a lot of what was conveyed in 999, not sure if it’s really that major but I just don’t see any reason to recommend this to anyone.

MrSirFeatherFang

I remember reading how they did the sprites in high resolution first. I would totally buy this if I had a device with an iOS. I could just go through the story all over again!

disqus_ln66ikSFAE

999 is okay solely as a visual novel, but borrows too many elements from the Infinity series. What really made it special to me was the blend of visual novel and room escape sequences. Also, without the split screens, I wonder how the climax of the story would be handled.

M’iau M’iaut

It practically right out rips every element from Ever 17 or Remember 11. :P Not that such is bad. Might actually be interesting to see how folks react when the puzzles go away. Anything to open the true VN door should be seen as a good thing.

Zero_Destiny

Yeah and VLR gets really reaaaaaaally Ever 17-ish near the end . . .

It does its own thing of course and isn’t like just the same story recycled but yeah, similarities are hard to miss. >__<

Detrimont

it’s written by the same person, of course there’s elements of Ever 17 and remember 11

Zero_Destiny

I know. :O

SHSL Big Bro

Even the author confirmed that it is indeed the same…person…as the one from the Ever 17 True end. Do you know what this means?
Zero Escape 3 will use E17’s plot twist to , basically, save everyone and prevent VLR from happening.

So… Is that a hint of how they feel about the general intelligence of the people who play iOS games?

M’iau M’iaut

Come now Test, you know the gaming tree of this author. There is plenty enough story to put together logically. Ever17 required more than just clicking and looking at the pictures to figure out what was really going on.

So what’s in place of the puzzle rooms? Don’t get me wrong, the narrative itself is excellent and stands on its own, but if they don’t replace the puzzle rooms with exposition, that certainly leaves some noticeable gaps in the story.

DyLaN

My best guess is tht they turned the puzzle segment into a narration.

komiko12

Another good remake would be a fully-voiced version on e-Shop.

DyLaN

Seconding this. I don’t mind it being on the iOS though cuz its the only thing I have.

benhofb

YES. Not this iOS business. I’m sorry, but all these iOS releases are getting to me.

Lemon

Not sure how I feel about this. Maybe it’s only me, but I think one of the greatest charms of 999 were the little (and trivial) things you could do during the puzzle segments, such as examining the pipes over and over again for one of the most hilarious in-game running joke. Of course, the puzzles themselves were fun and interesting too.

So I wonder if this means that the small conversations/remarks/comments you get from the other characters during the escape phases will be cut since there will be no more puzzles? Also, the final puzzle was probably one of the most mind-blowing and satisfying (though not necessarily difficult) puzzles I have ever completed in my whole life.

komiko12

There was also that hard chunk of meat in the refrigerator

DyLaN

Haha tht 9th man portrait art lol.

While I have mix feelings abt the removal of puzzles, the high resolution CGs/portrait art is nice to look at. I think I will most likely get this since I have an iPhone now.

Ty Arnold

…Wasn’t the whole point of 999 the fact that it utilized the DS’s features in a way that no other game has really matched?

Never mind the fact that the only reason I could get into it was because of the puzzles. Not much of a VN guy otherwise.

Mr_SP

That’s pretty neat… Except that I just bought the DS version, and this is in Japanese!

TheExile285

This smells like a bad omen

Isaac Newton

To me 999 has the best protagonist that the Zero Escape….

redhood56

WHAT! *head explodes* but how? It is impossible! So they cut the bottom screen? Does Spike Chunsoft even understand their own game?

remember what mobile industry did to megaman series? look at rockman xover.
removing coins from mario wouldnt be a problem, but make mario run by itself so you only jump when needed and it’s over.
doing this to 999 makes no difference than watching the playthrough on youtube

DyLaN

Personally, I like tht I do not need to redo the puzzles again just to get a new ending. Not too much of a puzzle guy here. Still, I wonder why they took out the puzzle? To draw the VN fan in?